an edict of Sultan Mahmoud all his subjects, of whatever religion, were declared equal in the eye of the law. 66 Be 31. 1 Ubicini, 275, 276. There can not be a stronger proof of the maladministration and oppressive nature of the government in Turkey, Small revenue An institution exists in Turkey, specially in- than the extremely small amount derived from 29. tended to protect the weak against the of the public revenue, compared Turkey. Institution strong, and which, despite the usual with its extent and material resources. The enof Ayams. arbitrary nature of the government, tire revenue of the empire is from 650,000,000 to sometimes had this effect. This is the institu- 750,000,000 piastres (£6,000,000 to £7,000,000), tion of Ayams, a sort of popular representation, not a seventh part of the public income of Great and which provides a functionary who, like the Britain, possessing in the portion taxed not a tribunes of the people, is specially charged with fifth part of the extent of surface, nor a tenth the protection of a particular class of the inhab- part of the natural riches and agricultural aditants committed to his charge. The duty of vantages of the Ottoman dominions. In ancient these functionaries, who are elected by the times they maintained four times their present burghers and traders, is to watch over the in- inhabitants, and yielded five times their present terests of individuals, the security of burghs, revenue. Yet, trifling as it is, this revenue is combat the tyranny of the pachas, and effect a felt as so oppressive by the inhabitants that it just and equal division of the public burdens. operates as a serious bar to industry. It is Every Mussulman, without exception, who is in raised by a tithe on agricultural produce and trade, belongs to some incorporation, the heads animals, and a tax of 17 per cent. on incomesof which are elected by its members, and whose in all 27 per cent. on landed property, a grievous duty it is to bring the strength of the incorpo- burden, and crushing to industry. The Turkration to bear upon the defense of any individ-ish government cuts up its own resources from ual of it who is threatened with oppression. the roots, by destroying the industry from which These are the ayams; they are usually chosen they must arise. When a native of Louisiana," from among the most wealthy and respected says Montaigne, "desires the fruit of a of the trade; are assisted by a divan, composed tree, he lays the ax to its root. also of the most eminent of the trade; and they hold the emblem of despotism." often discharge their duties with great courage Like all declining empires, and none more than and fidelity. Still, so venal is justice, and so its own provinces under the Byzan- 32. arbitrary the administration of government in tine rule, Turkey exhibits the symp- Great poputhe Ottoman dominions, that even the ayams, toms of decline more strongly in lation of the supported by the whole strength of the incor- the rural than the urban districts; towns, and poration, are seldom able to obtain redress but and several great towns, besides the decline of the by the payment of a large sum of capital, exhibit considerable marks money. But nevertheless redress of prosperity, while the provinces around them obtained in this way is better than are every day sinking deeper in the abyss of no redress at all; for the sum usu- misery. The constant migration of the inhabally paid to ward off the threat- itants from the country to the towns is the evil ened exaction is larger than any every where most strongly felt and complained Malte Brun, single individual, unless very opu- of in Turkey, for it paralyzes all rural operavii. 709, 710. lent, could afford to pay. tions, and cuts up by the roots the ultimate resources of the state. The new-comers in towns pick up a subsistence by trade and manufac tures, or fall as burdens on the charity of the mosques and opulent inhabitants. In the crowd they are overlooked by the tax-gatherers, and generally escape with the payment only of a trifling capitation-tax, a thing impossible when exposed to his rapacity in the solitude of rural life. Accordingly, while the provinces are every day more and more going to ruin, and large tracts of land are daily returning to a state of nature, the chief towns exhibit a considerable degree of prosperity, and 2 Ubicini, often a surprising number of inhabitants.2* 1 Tournefort, Voyage du Levant, ii., Letter xiv. Volney, Voyage en Syrie, ii., Letter c.; The ayams, however, are to be found chiefly 30. in the towns, and among the MussulThe village man burghers. The great, indeed the system. only security of the inhabitants of the country, is to be found in the village system, which is universal in the East, and has proved the great preservative of rural industry in every age, amidst the innumerable oppressions to which it has from the earliest times been subject. This admirable system, which has been 2 Hist. of Eu- described in a former work in rerope, c. xlvii., ference to Hindostan, and in this ◊ 19. to Russia, is established over the 3 Ante, c. viii, whole extent of Turkey; and wher◊ 29, 30. ever the industry of the peasants has survived the tyranny of the pachas, it has been mainly owing to its influence. It is, in fact, the natural resource of industry against exaction, of weakness to secure revenue, and of justice to partition burdens, and this is done with rigid impartiality. These little communities, though often extinguished through the exactions of the pachas, and the entire disappearance of the population in the plains, flourish in undisturbed security in the recesses of the mountains; and it is in their protection, and the shelter which they afford to industry, that the chief principle of vitality 4 Malte Brun, in the Ottoman dominions is to be found. vii. 707, 708. country. 361, 364. 33. One evil of a very peculiar kind exists in Turkey, highly injurious to indusMultitude try. This consists in the prodigious of idle serv- multitude of servants and idle reants in the tainers who are to be found in the country. establishments of the pachas and the affluent, and who consume the fruits of the earth, and the resources of the state, without contributing any thing either to the one or the other. The number amounts to 1,500,000 —a burden nearly as heavy as a standing army to the same amount would be, and far more enervating to the state. It is the hope of getting into some of these great establishments, where they may be maintained in idleness and luxury at the expense of the rural cultivators who are toiling at the plow, which is the great inducement that attracts such multitudes from the country to the great towns. When once there, they never go back; rural labor is ever insupportable to those who have once tasted the varieties and excitement of urban life. But this vast abstraction of robust hands from country labor to urban indolence, an evil in every country, is doubly so in one like Turkey, laboring under the scourge of 290. a scanty and declining rural popu 1 Ubicini, 34. lation.1 and extended his dominion from the Adriatic to the Crimea; Selim I., in 1517, subdued Egypt, Syria, and Rhodes; and in 1529, Hungary, torn by civil dissensions, opened to Soliman II. the road to Vienna. Soon after Cyprus yielded to Selim, but here the star of the Crescent was arrested. The battle of Lepanto, in 1571, checked forever their naval progress; the siege of Malta put a limit to their conquests in the Mediterranean. Azof, in the north of the empire, acquired in 1642, was successively lost and regained; Vienna, again besieged in 1683 by 150,000 Turks, beheld their total defeat by the arms of John Sobieski. The Ottoman arms yielded in several campaigns to the scientific manoeuvres and daring valor of Prince Eugene, and Austria made great acquisitions from them by the treaties of 1699 and 1718, but she lost them all by the disgraceful peace of 1739. Long victorious over the Turks under the banners of Marshal Mornich, the Russians, under Peter the Great, were reduced to capitulate, in 1711, on the Pruth, to the Ottoman forces, and purchase a disgraceful retreat by the abandonment of all their conquests. The Morea was conquered from them by the Venetians in 1699, though soon after regained, and the conquest of Bagdad seemed to announce their decisive superiority in Asia over the Persians. Yet were these great successes, which filled all Europe with dread, and seemed to presage for them almost universal dominion, soon followed by still greater disasters. The growing strength of Russia rose up in appalling vigor beside the at length declining resources of the Osmanlis. Romanzoff crossed the Danube, and carried the ravages of war to the foot of the Balkan; the fleet of Orloff made the circuit of Europe, and consigned the Turkish fleet to the flames in the bay of Tchesme; the Morea took up arms in 1783, and for a time acknowledged the sceptre of Russia; and nothing but the intervention of France and England preserved the empire from dismemberment, when threatened with the combined armies of Russia and Austria, two hundred thousand strong, immediately before the French Revolution. The war of 1808 still more clearly revealed the increasing weakness of the Ottomans. Russia alone proved more than a match for Turkey. Wallachia and Moldavia were by a formal ukase incorporated with the dominions of the Czar, and nothing but the invasion of Napoleon in 1812 obliged the cabinet of St. Petersburg to acknowledge for a brief season the Pruth as the frontier stream of the two empires. It results necessarily from this peculiar and anomalous position of the Turkish Variable empire, that its political and military strength of strength varies extremely from time the Turkish to time, and depends rather on casual Empire. fits of excitement or sudden fits of passion, than any lasting strength or permanent resources. When a sultan of great vigor or military capacity is at the head of affairs, and the nation is excited by the prospect of glory or pillage, or when the religious feelings of the people are violently excited against the infidels, nearly the whole race of the Osmanlis run to arms, and the grand-vizier finds himself at the head of a mighty host, which has often proved for the time irresistible by the utmost strength of the Western powers. It was thus that Rhodes was conquered in 1517 from its valiant chevaliers by Selim I.; and Vienna besieged by Soliman II., in 1529; and Candia conquered by Mohammed IV.; and Vienna again besieged, and saved from destruction only by John Sobieski in 1683. On many of these occasions the grandvizier found himself at the head of 150,000 men, whose desperate onset in the field was equaled only by the skill with which they wielded their weapons. But as these efforts were founded on passing excitement, not durable strength or One great cause of these extraordinary mutalasting policy, they were seldom of long dura- tions of fortune is, that the Ottoman tion: a single considerable reverse was gener- empire is not one state, in the Euro- Independent ally sufficient to disperse the mighty host which pean sense of the word; that is, a position of was held together only by the fervor of fanat- united dominion, ruled by one gov the larger icism, or the lust of plunder; and the grand-ernment, obliged to obey its direct pachas, and vizier often found himself wholly deserted, a mandates, and contributing all its weakness of few days after he had been at the head of an resources to its support: it is rather the central army apparently capable of conquering the an aggregate of separate states, owworld. ing only a nominal allegiance to the central power, and yielding it effective support only when the vigor and capacity of the ruling sultan, or the strong tide of passing enthusiasm, leaves them no alternative but to render it. The pachas, especially the more distant and powerful ones, are often in substance independent; they pay only a fixed tribute to the sul 35. Hence the history of Turkey presents the most extraordinary vicissitudes of Great vicis fortune, and has oscillated alternately from the most prosperous to most adverse circumstances. of Turkey. Mohammed II. stormed Constantinople in 1453, and ere long he had subdued Greece, situdes in 36. consequent power. uation. It is no wonder that Constantinople has ever since its foundation exercised so great 38. an influence on the fortunes of the Its incomspecies, for its local advantages are parable situnique, and its situation must ever render it the most important city in the Old World. Situated on the confines of Europe and Asia, with a noble harbor, it at the same time centres in itself the trade of the richest parts of the globe; commanding the sole outlet from the Euxine into the Mediterranean, it of necessity sees the commerce of the three quarters of the globe pass under its walls. The Danube wafts to its quays the productions of Germany, Hungary, and northern Turkey; the Volga, the agricultural riches of the Ukraine and the immense plains of southern Russia; the Kuban, of the mountain tribes of the Caucasus; caravans, traversing the Taurus and the deserts of Mesopotamia, convey to it the riches of Central Asia and the distant productions of India; the waters of the Mediterranean afford a field for the vast commerce of the nations which lie along its peopled shores; while the more distant manufactures of Britain and the United States of America find an inlet through the Straits of Gibraltar. The pendants of all the nations of the earth are to be seen side by side, in close profusion, in the Golden Horn: "the meteor flag of England" and the rising star of America, the tricolor of France and the eagles of Russia, the aged ensigns of Europe and the infant sails of Australia. Hers is the only commerce in the world which never can fail, and ever must rise superior to all the changes of fortune-for the increasing numbers and energy of northern only renders the greater the demand for the boundless agricultural produe tions of southern Europe, and every addition to the riches and luxury of the West only augments the traffic which must ever subsist between it and the regions of the sun. tan, generally inconsiderable compared to the | brought the forces of England and France to sum which they contrive to exact from their the Bosphorus, to avert the threatened seizsubjects: they are bound to send, in case of ure of the matchless city by the armies of the need, a certain body of troops to his support, Czar. but it is generally delayed as long as possible, and when it does arrive, like the contingents of the German princes, it seldom gives any effective aid to the forces of the empire. Many of the bloodiest and most desperate wars the Porte has ever carried on, have been with its own rebellious satraps. Czerny George and Prince Molosch, at the head of the strength of Servia, maintained a prolonged contest with the Ottoman forces, which terminated, in recent times, in its nominal submission and real independence. Ali Pacha, the "Lion of Janina," long set the whole power of the sultan at defiance, and was only subdued at length by treachery. Wallachia and Moldavia, under their elective hospodars, are only bound to pay a fixed tribute to the sultan, and are rather the subjects of the Czar than the Porte; and the Pacha of Egypt, by whose aid alone the balance was cast against the Greeks in 1827, brought the dominions of the Osmanlis to the verge of ruin a few years after, from whence they were rescued by the intervention, still more perilous, of Russia. The empire of the Turks would, from these causes of weakness, have long since fallen to pieces were it not for the jealousies of the European powers, who interpose, before it is too late, to prevent Constantinople from falling into the hands of any of their number, and the strength and incomparable situation of that capital itself, which, in modern as in ancient times, has singly supported the tottering fabric of the empire for more than one century. CONSTANTINOPLE, one of the most celebrated and finely situated capitals in the world, has exercised almost a more ence of Con- important influence on the fortunes of the species than any other city in existence in modern times. It broke in pieces the vast fabric of the Roman empire, and was the principal cause of the fall of its western division; for after the charms of the Bosphorus had rendered its shores the head of empire, the forces of the West were no longer able to make head against the increasing strength of the barbarians. Singly, by its native strength and incomparable situation, it supported the Empire of the East for a thousand years after Rome had yielded to the assault of Alaric, and preserved the precious seeds of ancient genius till the mind of Europe was prepared for their reception. It diverted the Latin Crusaders from the shores of Palestine, and occasioned the downfall of the Empire of the East by the ruthless arms of the Franks; it attracted afterward the Osmanlis from the centre of Asia, and brought about their lasting settlement in the finest provinces of Europe. It has since been the object of ceaseless ambition and contention to the principal European powers. A kingdom in itself, it is more coveted than many realms. Austria and Russia have alternately united and contended for the splendid prize; it broke up the alliance of Erfurth, and brought the arms of Napoleon to Moscow; and in these days it has dissolved all former confederacies, created new ones, and 37. Vast influ stantinople on the fortunes of mankind. 39. The local facilities, strength of situation, and beauty of Constantinople, are commensurate to these immense advant- Description ages of its geographical position. of the city. Situated on a triangle, two sides of which are washed by the sea, it is protected by water on all sides, excepting the base, to which the whole strength of the place only requires to be directed. The harbor, called the "Golden Horn,” formed by a deep inlet of the sea, eight miles in length, on the northern side of the city, is at once so deep as to admit of three-deckers lying close to the quay, so capacious as to admit all the navies of Europe into its bosom, and so narrow at its entrance as to be capable of being closed by a chain drawn across its mouth. The apex of the triangle is formed by the far-famed Seraglio, or Palace of the Sultans, in itself a city, embracing within its ample circuit the luxurious apartments in which the beauties of the East alternate between the pastimes of children and the jealousies of women, and the shady gardens, where, beneath venerable cedars and plane-trees, fountains of living water cool the sultry air with their ceaseless flow. The city itself, standing on this triangular to these terrific dimensions, they excite very little attention. The population of the city varies much, from time to time, with the ravages of pestilence, or the terrors of conflagration. In one quarter-that of the Fanar-the principal Greek families reside, many of whom have acquired in trade and commerce very con space, is surrounded by the ancient walls of Constantine, nine thousand eight hundred toises, or about twelve English miles, in circuit, and in most places in exactly the state in which they were left, when the ancient masters of the world resigned the sceptre of the East to the Osmanli conquerors. The breach is still to be seen in the walls, made by the cannon of Mo-siderable fortunes. They are the "sad remains hammed, by which the Turks burst into the eity. In many places, huge plane-trees, of equal antiquity, overshadow even these vast walls by 1 Malte Brun, their boughs; and in others, ivy, the growth of centuries, attests at once the antiquity of the structure and the negligence or superstition of the modern masters of the city.1 vii. 722; Von Hammer, Conder Bosphorus, 72, and History, stantinople und i. 100. 40. of the Byzantine noblesse, who, trembling under the sabre of the Mussulmans, give themselves the titles of princes, purchase from the Porte the temporary sovereignty of Wal- 1 Zallony, lachia and Moldavia, seek riches in Des Fanaevery possible way, crouch before riotes, Paris, power, and convey to this day a 1824, p. 72; faithful image of the Lower Em- Malte Brun, pire." vii. 723. 42. the sexes. prises 42,000 female slaves. This is a very cu- be 2 Ubicini, 27, 28. No words can express the beauty of the city The population of Constantinople, with its of Constantinople, with its charming adjunct suburbs, is nearly 900,000; Description suburbs of Pera, Galata, and Scutari, and the proportion of women to men Population of the city, when seen from the waters on the is very nearly the same as in the cap- of Constanas seen from opposite shore of the Hellespont. itals of western Europe, the former tinople, and the sea. Situated on a cluster of low hills, domiciled being 388,000, and the lat- equality of which there border the Sea of Marmora, it pre-ter only 364,000. The former comsents an assemblage of charming objects, such as are not to be seen in a similar space in any other part of the world. It has not the magnificent background of the Bay of Naples, nor the castellated majesty of Genoa; but in the perfection of the scene, the harmony of all its parts, and the homogeneous nature of the emotion it awakens, it is superior to either. The scene is perfect; the panorama, as seen from the bay, is complete. To the north, the majestie entrance of the Bosphorus-the waters of which are covered with caïques, while its shores exhibit alternately the wildness of the savage forest and the riches of cultivated society-kindles the imagination with the idea of unseen beauties; to the east, the suburb of Scutari, in itself a city, with its successive ranges of terraces and palaces, the abodes of European opulence and splendor; to the west, the superb entrance of the Golden Horn, crowded with vessels, and the dense piles of the city itself, rising one above another in successive gradations, surmounted by the domes of a hundred mosques, among which the cupola of St. Sophia and the minarets of that of Sultan Achmet appear conspicuous; while to the south the view is closed by the beautiful Point of the Seraglio, its massy structures guarded with jealous care, half obscured by the stately trees which 172; Malte adorn its gardens, and dip their leafy Brun, vii. branches in the cool stream of the Dardanelles.2 43. Greece. The quarter from which this magnificent city is most assailable is the sea; and the expedition of Sir John Duckworth in Maritime 1807, however unfortunate in its final forces of results, from the tardiness with which Turkey and its operations were conducted, yet revealed its inherent weakness, and proved that it might be brought to subjection, despite the castles of Europe and Asia, by the vigorous assault of a great maritime power. 3 Hist. of But in this respect the Turks had Europe, c. long the advantage of the Russians, xlv. § 64. from the admirable skill of the Greek sailors who manned their fleet. These hardy seamen, as expert now as when they rolled back the tide of Persian invasion in the Straits of Salamis, constituted the real strength of Turkey. Engrossing nearly the whole trade of the Euxine and the Archipelago, they had covered A nearer approach, however, considerably these seas with their sails, and been trained to 41. dispels the illusion, and reveals, un-hardihood and daring amidst their frequent Defects of der this splendid exterior, in a larger storms. Their principal naval establishments, 2 Lam. iii. 722. POPULATION OF CONSTANTINOPLE IN 1844. its interior. proportion than usual the evils and 68,000 Armenians... 16,000 Do. united. Greeks Jews empire exceeded 200,000, and they constituted Hydra, Spezzia, and Ipsara, had become great | its vicinity. Their numbers over the whole seaports, where an immense commerce was carried on, and which, from the entire dependence of Constantinope upon their seamen for supplies in peace and defense in war, had for long practically enjoyed the blessings of independence. Their barks conveyed the 1,500,000 bushels of grain annually from Egypt and Odessa to the mouths of the Danube, which supplied the metropolis with food; their seamen manned the stately line-of-battle ships which lay at the entrance of the Bosphorus, to guard the approach to the capital from the assaults of Russia. The Czar had no seamen of his own who could compete on their native element with the incomparable Greek islanders; his vessels were for the most part manned by them: a war at sea between him and the Porte was like one between England and America; the same race of seamen were seen on both sides. Under the influence of these favorable circumstances, the islands of the Archipelago had made unexampled strides in population, riches, and strength; the level fields of Scio were covered with orchards, vineyards, gardens, and villas, where one hundred thousand Christians, freed from the Ottoman yoke, dwelt in peace and happiness; the rocks of Hydra and Ipsara bristled with cannon, which defended the once desert isles, where fifty thousand industrious citizens were enriched by the activity of commerce; while the trade of the islands, carried on in 600 1 Ann. Hist. Vessels, bearing 6000 guns, and naviv. 388, 389; igated by 18,000 seamen, maintained Ponqueville, the busy and increasing multitude in 172, 180. comfort and affluence.1* zaries. The chief military strength of Turkey, as is 44. well known, till very recent times, The Jani- consisted in the JANIZARIES, a sort of standing army of great vigor and courage, established in the capital and the principal towns of the empire. They were originally formed from the sons of Christians, chiefly in Armenia and Circassia, who were torn from their parents in early life, circumcised, and bred up in the Mohammedan faith. Being thus severed from their families, and accustomed to look up alone to the sultan as their military chief, they formed for long a numerous and faithful body of guards, the terror of Christendom, and the cause of the most brilliant triumphs in former days gained by the Ottoman arms. They were possessed of the privilege, after twenty years' service, of settling as tradesmen in any town of the empire, still remaining, however, liable to be called out occasionally if the service of the state required it, and retaining their arms and military accoutrements. Thus they were on a footing very much resembling in this respect, though by no means in others, the foot-guards in London, who, on the days in which they are not on duty, pursue their ordinary pacific avocations. About 25,000 to 40,000 of these troops usually were stationed in Constantinople and "M. Pouqueville evalue la Marine marchande de toutes les isles Grecques à 615 bátimens, sans compter les Polacres, barques pontées, montées par 17,526 marins et armées de 5847 canons. On a vu dans la discussion de la loi des grains en France, qu'en 1817 et 1818 il n'y avait moins de 400 ou 500 bâtimens Grecs employés au transport des grains de la Mer Noire."-Annuaire Historique, iv. 38, note. 45. The great military strength of the Turks, as Eton gives the following as the military strength of Deduct for garrisons, &c. -ETON'S Survey of Turkish Empire, 372. 181,000 207,000 388,000 202,000 186,000 |